City hopes harnessing data will improve quality of life

It's the location of fire hydrants and health centers and restaurant inspections.

In other cities, citizens are harnessing that data to match bus routes to doctors, pairing hydrants with citizens willing to dig them out after big snows and tying restaurant reviews to eatery cleanliness.

Now Cincinnati City Council wants citizens to do that in the Queen City.

"People can use this data to come up with quality of life solutions and create patterns that allow governments to be more efficient," Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said.

He led the city's initiative to partner with the independent website www.opendatacincy.org, created by the Haile U.S. Bank Foundation. The website's goal: connecting people with data. The website touts its mission as an "online public website for regional and government data to encourage transparency, innovation and civic engagement."

Some of the city's vacant building and crime data is already on the website.

Sittenfeld and Interim Cincinnati City Manager Scott Stiles announced Tuesday that more data will soon be uploaded to the site and that the city will create a chief data officer position through reorganization. Stiles has asked all city departments to identify what data should be shared.

"Mixing and matching data is huge, but first people need access to it," Sittenfeld said. "The city is extending an invitation to innovation."